Recently Lookout has said that a bunch of wallpaper apps by a single developer could steal personal information off your phone. These programs are said to be able to access

• browsing history
• text messages
• your SIM card data
• subscriber ID
• voicemail password (if it’s set to be entered automatically)

This is based on Lookout saying it has code in the app that could possible do this. Now I will say I have not looked at the code and have little interest in looking at said code. What I care about are the permissions the app has and based on these permissions the apps in question can not do what Lookout say it is doing.

So what does it have access to and what does it make possible?

Storage: Modify/delete SD card comments
Of course this is needed in order to save the wallpaper

Your Location: Course (network based) location
Now I know this one seems odd but most if not all apps support by ads will have this so that the ads can be delivered to you that may be local.

Network communication: full internet access
Of course that is needed the images are online

Phone calls: read phone state and identity
Most apps have this so they can go to the background when a call comes in.

Now in order to do what it has been accused of doing it would need to have:

Your Personal Information:
This would be required for it to read browser history like it is accused of doing.

System Tools:
This would be required to get your information like subscriber information and  voice mail number and voice mail password if it is saved.

Also I am willing to bet you have apps that have those two permissions, but that does mean apps with those permissions are bad just a heads up.

Again Lookout’s concern is that it has code that makes it possible but without the required permissions it is a non issue. And Lookout and other blogs reporting this should make that clear.

Recently Swift Key for Android, a keyboard replacement, was added to the market with a beta tag. Unlike other replacement keyboards for android Swift Key does not try to change the way we use a touchscreen keyboard instead it changes how effective we are at using the keyboard.

Swift key uses very advanced predicted text mechanics that seems to read your mind telling you what you want to type before you even know.

If you have used other replacement keyboards you will notice some interesting things during setup. First you need to download the language packs you will need with a lot to choose. Second it asks to read text messages to learn how you type. Now this seems odd but it is vital. Let me explain I have two kids each with unusual names, each time I get new phone or download a new keyboard I have to take the time to program the names into the dictionary. This time however I didn’t need to in fact it knew how to spell their name as well as my ex-wifes unique spelled name as well as understanding the need to make sure they are all correctly capitalized. And it learned this from reading my text messages.

So how affective is Swift Key? I wrote this blog post with it in about 5 minutes on my phone. And based on what Swift is telling I am 21% more efficient using Swift Key and and was saved 374 keystrokes. Although I feel it is more because it corrected my fat thumbs also.

So grab the app while you can and when it is released out of beta pay for it, it will be worth it.

[Market link]

Hope you had a good one.

Videos taken with Qik expect review of the App soon, and follow Tagon42 on Qik

With so many ways to get in touch with your friend you may be asking yourself do I really need yet another way to communicate with my friends and family?

TiKL thinks so. As they put it:

TiKL creates new and innovative communication oriented products. TiKL’s mission is to redefine the way we communicate. Making it simple. Making it easy.

So how do they plan to do that? Simple with TiKL you are given the ability to use a Push to Talk like function on your phone. The service does this via a data connection so it uses no plan minutes. Of course with the data usage you had best be on an unlimited plan. Luckily TiKL does have an option to use it via WiFi only if you happen to be on that provider that does not offer unlimited.

Summary: TiKL provides you with a quick and easy way to talk to one or many people with just a click of a button and is a great app for someone with a lot of friends and family on Android devices.

Pros:

• Simple to use
• Free
• Does not use plan minutes.

Cons:

• Right now it is only on Android.
• Uses Data which could be an issue if you do not have unlimited

Final Verdict:

If you have an Android device get this app and get all your android friends to get this app you will be happy with the app and surprised by how often you find a use for the service.

App Brain Link

I am sure you have heard from a site or two or three Google flipped a magic switch and removed a couple apps that did nothing…sort of.

The apps in question were created and placed on the market by one Jon Oberheide from a security startup, Scio Security…yea I haven’t heard of either until all this either. Now Mr Oberheide  found what he felt was a major security flaw in the Android OS. That flaw was the fact that you could install an app with one permission say something like the need permissions to download images from the upcoming twilight movie (one of the apps was called Twilight Eclipse Preview, and promised just that) but the only thing the app did was make it possible to download an update to the app without the end user knowing. Making it possible for this app to turn itself from a useless space waster to perhaps a key logger or whatever.

Now I have looked, and I can only find the Mr Oberheide told the world about this flaw after people have installed (and mostly uninstalled according to Google) his app, in fact he said this during a Summercon last week. I can find no evidence that he told before this and done the respectable thing of giving them a chance to fix it first. But after announcing it Google asked the creator to remove the apps from the market place which he did.

Now Google could have left it at this, they say most of the people who download the app had in fact removed it after finding it did nothing, but of course not everyone. Now Google could have handled this a few ways. They choose to use the kill switch that we have known about before the G1 was even released after all they have never used it before and I bet they really wanted to test it before it was really needed.

But of course some people are upset, and rightful so it looks like Google had abused the power we gave them, but that is only because it wasn’t that big of a deal. Next time Google uses the kill switch I am sure we will say thank you

Recently I made a choice that nothing is so important that it should interrupt my meal time with other people. Now I live alone and seldom have meals with other people, in fact I am perfectly content to eat my dinner alone while watching TV. However this is not always the case sometimes I get the chance to have a meal with a friend or family member, and honestly I am a hyper connected person. My phone is typical with me and on the times when for what ever reason the battery goes dead before my day is done I get panic. I feel some how disconnected and out of control…I have become a slave to my device. And this servitude to my phone has caused issues more then once I have been chastised for the use of my phone.

I have recently made up my mind to make a promise to those I am with that the dinner table is not a place for my phone. To the extent that if I know that the other person will have their phone I may  choose to leave the device behind. Yes that is right more then once in the last month I have set my sexi nexi on her dock and left the house. This was really hard the first time but the cool thing is both my phone and I were unharmed. In fact I was better then unharmed I had a great evening.

Now I can’t always leave my phone behind my job requires a certain level of reachability. Not to mention it seems when I don’t reply to a text within a timely manner people think I am dead or something and the excuses that I left it home seems to confuse them when I correct them say oh your forgot your phone, No I left it at home on purpose, but nothing is so important that it can’t wait until I finish my meal and send some quality time with the person sitting next to me.

And it seems I am not the only one to think that. Recently Gizmodo pointed out a site that has some tools to help make sure that you remember to turn off that phone. My Phone is Off for You has some great ideas on helping you get your phone off and show the other person you care so they will do the same. Now I am not saying you should go buy that Phone Kerchief that blocks your cell signal or the stamp or the flair. But the Impromptu do what you can to let those you care enough about to eat with that are going to turn that device off for them.

So do yourself a favor and TURN THAT THING OFF!

Verizon and Motorola have just released a new teaser video for the Droid X, and although it is high on creepy it is low on information…or is it? As you watch the images flash in the eye you can see a few things like HDMI output (is HDMI output the new standard for high end Android?) also the guys over at Android Guys have found with a little detective what looks like a new Twitter account. They did this by taking one of the frames flipping it and sure enough you see @DroidLanding now currently the twitter profile is very basic looking with no tweets, but then again the video was just released today. Check out the image from Android Guys and the video below.

First I would like to say sorry about this extremely late second half of my review on the droid eris. But as your about to learn it was really good that it took this long, and for more than just explaining the conversation that I had with an HTC rep just the other day.

Alright, lets start at the top. Anyone who has looked at or purchased, hell, anyone who has even researched the eris knows that it was never meant to be a power-house device. Now that’s not to say its supposed to be a child’s toy either, but you get my drift. Because of this, I feel that eris owners in general have been way to relaxed when it comes to forcing acountability for what is now obviously an extremely flawed device. I’m not laying all this blame on HTC for this either. Now a crappy battery life, sometimes unresponsive screen and the absurd heat that is generated when the eris is charging, that falls on HTC. But truth is, Android is Google’s baby. Whether the critic’s and fan boys wanna argue this or not, if Android was a baby, Google would have been the A-sexual parental unit. What that means is that Google is responsible for at least half the overall experiance that your going to have with your Android device. And if Google isn’t going to start testing and retesting on there own, the devices which will be carrying there baby(much less be representing all of there hard work) then breaking the hearts of consumer’s will be the least of there worry’s. What I’m saying is that creating the new 2. whatever version of Google is cool and all, but if the hardware blow’s then the consumer’s will not have anything near the user experiance Google imagined. This is a matter of hardware and software needing to be on the same page. If you doubt this at all I will remind you of the leader, the iphone. Now the iphone may be a smart phone with training wheels and a pretty little bell, but those training wheels where built by the same people who made the frame of the bike. That means there is no guessing if they will work together, they were built too.

Now before you get your flame wheels turning, I would like to point out the best part about this problem. Anarchy, not in the sense of people running around lighting building’s on fire, but in the sense that as Android user’s we have the passion and ability to take OUR mobile OS into our own hand’s. That is something no iphone user will have ever have the pleasure of doing, and something I just realized in full affect as of lately. The community that has been built from Android, is tighter and more helpful than any other out there. I have never not once heard a water cooler talk about some cool feature the palm pre has. But I have seen coworkers sharing apps via bump, and come into work more excited to tell there friends about anything from there silly new case to how they were able to record and edit there child’s first steps on there Android. These people, correction, OUR people, range all the way from celebrated geek to the mother who bought her mytouch to have something to talk to her disconnected kids about. I know of at least two parents who share Android as a hobby with there children. Android will never replace baseball in that effect, but it will be what your both talking about standing in line for tickets.

Seeing as I started with the good news, I’ll now drop the bad. Phone manufacturer’s are not in the business of selling great devices. There in the business of making different devices for different price points. That’s because for them there client isn’t you, its the network provider’s. If there only goal was to make a killer device then every Motorola would be the MOTO Droid, not the pieces of crap they sell for tracfone that you can score for 15 bucks.

The other big problem is that Google hasn’t come up with a minimum hardware spec for the devices they are willing to put Android on. This is bad. Microsoft knows this, that’s why there is a min bar for any device hoping to get window’s mobile 7 on it. Apple knows this. Why Google can’t figure this out is shocking to me. Being a part of the open handset alliance doesn’t mean that those handsets get to be crap. The day Google comes up with a min bar, is the day that the overall android experiance will get better for everyone. I promise.

Now to my first call with HTC. After many, many frustrating calls to Verizon’s tech support, with virtually no help, I decided to call HTC myself. More than one time Verizon employee’s have told me that there was a patch in the works, always being more than vague on a delivery date for such a patch. And frankly, anyone who has called there cell company for any reason, knows they will sometimes say anything. So I called HTC, and the guy I got was more than honest with me. He said he was a sup working the phones that day to help with the high volume. I explained my problems, stuck lock screen, dead air, a jumping curser, ghost restarts and totall shut downs amongst many other things. 90 percent of all of my problems showing up after the 2.1 update. The sup then explained that he doesn’t know anything about a patch being made and that HTC had explained to Verizon that the update would have to be fragmented, due to the hardware constraints (that min bar would be real nice know huh). I asked if he thought that the reason there wasn’t going to be a patch with the Eris was because there didn’t need to be one, or because Verizon expects people to jump to the incredible. He said ” I would say B , but that is my opinion, not HTC’s”. He then played “CYA” explaining that he doesn’t know everything.

Now I have worked for 2 different cell company’s in 2 seperate call centers. I know that sometimes people say there supervisors when there not. I also know that as an agent, one who is on the phone for hours a day, its real easy to get tired of making excuses for something you had nothing to do with. Eventually you crack, and you tell someone the truth. Not because you hate the company you work for, but because for some reason you connect with a caller enough to be openly honest. You then hang up the call feeling good for about 2 seconds. After that you start to pray that the Quality dept didn’t listen in or record your call.

I called back the next day to confirm what I had been told, only to be told the opposite by a very cold woman. I made this call sitting out in front of a local Verizon store. The plan was to get confirmation of verizons lie and to wait for the store to open so I could make the biggest scene ever. Since I didn’t get confirmation, I didn’t walk into the Verizon store. I did however drive down the block to Sprint. I’ll be picking up my evo on September 27th of this year, the day after my Verizon contract is up.

So in conclusion, I love my Eris. Like I love my uncle. You know, the one that tought you so much about what’s great, but sucks a$ at doing any of those things themselves. That showed you what’s on the other side of the mountain, because they had pictures of it. Not because they had ever been there before. I don’t totally blame HTC, or Verizon for that matter, for my crappy experience. But I do think that for the money I pay for my 5 line account, the least Verizon could’ve done was be honest with me. Atleast the brief window of honesty I got from a good guy at HTC. Which is why ill be sporting the Evo and not Verizon come October.

Id like to leave you with this, Android is incredible. But until Google comes up with a min bar for hardware manufacturers. Spend the extra 100 dollars and get your networks best android device. If for no other reason than the feeling you’ll get when you walk into the office, and your holding the best Android phone in the room. Just don’t forget to bump that cool new app to that kid who’s still using the G1. Remember, were in this together.
P.s.     yes I did try to call NASA, and I would have been right. If I made my point a few billion years earlier that is.

As any Droid Eris own will most likely tell you the recent upgrade to 2.1 has not been all sunshine and lollipops. Between the missing features that Verizon promised and reports of major bugs I know of a few user who are ready to give up on not only the Eris but maybe even Android all together. One such user? Anthony you may remember him from his review of the the Eris at least I hope you do after all it is to date the most viewed post on this blog. Since the upgrade to 2.1 he has be plagued with just plain out odd bugs with all major features, such as messages failing to send and calls dropping after coming in. The only solution he has found is power shocking the phone, by removing the battery. Now Anthony is not the kind of man to put up with this level of crap so he did what any user would do he called his carrier for help. Well Verizon basically told him oh well your problem not mine. Before I continue I should note that Anthony once attempted to call NASA because of a discussion about the Milky Way. So what did he do when Verizon was less then helpful? He called HTC and what he was told was shocking. But I will let his words speak for themself

I called HTC today and had a sup tell me there isn’t and never was a patch being created to fix the eris. And that Verizon was told from the beginning that the eris 2.1 would be fragmented, as well as Verizon demanding the update before HTC wanted to let it go. Hence the no speach to txt. The sup said that the eris hardware could handle it but had to be scratched because of the rush. And I’m not pulling your leg. Wish I would have recorded the call.

Now I do understand that more often then not a call center supervisor is not always given all the information. IN fact most the time we are treated like mushroom. That is kept in the dark and feed a load of crap, but to out right say we are not or has never been a patch for the 2.1 issues on the Eris is shocking.

This is also just one supervisor who has said this, but if you are an Eris owner call HTC your self and see what they say

Update:
So Anthony called HTC again today and again talked to a supervisor. This one told him the last person he talked to was not a supervisor and that although they have no ETA or any information on when or how the update will be pushed, the fact remains that the patch is being worked on.

On June 7th Steve Jobs put on a show announcing something Gizmodo announced a few months ago. But apple did show a few things that was surprising, but were they ground breaking?

Before I continue let me say that I am a happy Android user. I like what I get from my Nexus One and honestly plan to upgrade to a new Android device as soon as possible (unless something ground breaking happens next year), but I know it is not perfect and respect what Apple has done with the Iphone from day one. And if not for restrictions on the device I would consider getting one if something ground break was announced.

And to I though maybe they would after all in an email reply to the question if WWDC would show us something that would blow Google out of the water Steve Jobs said ‘you wont be disappointed…I didn’t see anything that blew me out of the water. So lets break down what I did see.

The Display:
Alright this was great. A display that better then your eye can see?!? Just wow, but did it blow me out of the water? It sets a standard but isn’t that far off of what higher end phones like the Evo, I would bet that the next phone from manufactures like HTC of Motorola  will have a “retina display”

The Gyroscope:
I toss this one in to the cool, but no phone is hurting without one category. I also see this something that will come standard now, for better or worse.

Front Facing Camera/Face Time:
This is where Apple is playing catch up. Yea that is right these features are already on Android, and Android does it better. Lets us look at the Evo released 3 days before WWDC. Not only does it have a front facing camera. The Evo has a better one 1.3 mp instead of VGA. And with a few video chat programs that work not only over WiFi but over 3G as well. Now it is true that Face Time does not require any account set up, but it is limited to people with Iphone 4 only. Fring, Skype and Qik will work across platforms making them better options.

iMovie:
I admit Android has nothing like this that I can find (if I am wrong let me know), but I am not giving it to Apple either. No I am not being petty. I am going to give this one to Palm, because like 6 months ago WebOS introduced the ability to edit the videos on your device that  you record on your device. It may not have all the features that iMovie says it has, but it is standard on the device, reason two I am giving it to Palm.

So the Iphone 4 has set some new standards one of which is honestly ground breaking and that of course is the display, but nothing that blew Google out of the water. In fact it did nothing but confirm that Google and Apple in a dead heat and in the end it is us the consumer that is going to benefit.